ChanTest has an expanding line of ion channel services designed to give drug-discovery researchers the early information to identify the most promising compounds, and eliminate those that could be harmful. In addition, the company’s ion channel cell lines and services are used to help rescue shelved pharmaceutical compounds.
“Over the years the pharmaceutical and biotech industries have shelved thousands of promising drug candidates because they may induce cardiac or other dangerous side effects in a small subset of potential users,” said Dr. Arthur “Buzz” Brown. “This warehouse of extant, withdrawn, or discontinued drugs represents billions of dollars of discovery and development cost. Our safety assays and rapidly expanding library of ion channel-expressing cell lines are offering new hope to drug-discovery researchers looking to recover and repurpose some of those candidates and recoup their previous investment.
“For example, we identified a client’s compound that had failed for lack of efficacy but had an intriguing profile in one of our ion channel panel screens. After validation in an animal model of atrial fibrillation (AF), compound CT-1 is being tested for termination of AF in a Phase 2a proof-of-concept clinical trial. Initial results of oral administration in 22 patients show a termination rate of ~ 70 percent, well above the 30-percent rate for the antiarrhytmics used presently.”
ChanTest scientists were the first to prove hERG as the target for adverse cardiac events linked to non-cardiac drugs Seldane (terfenadine), Propulsid (cisapride), and Nizoral (ketoconazole). ChanTest pioneered the development of functional, cell-based ion channel testing as a means to predict cardiac side effects produced by non-cardiac drugs. Such testing is now a standard component of regulatory submissions prior to the approval of drugs for use in humans.
Release Date: July 17, 2008
Source: ChanTest
Filed Under: Drug Discovery
